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Old Republic Home Warranty - Heating

Old Republic Home Warranty • Air conditioning • Heating • Water heater • Electrical • Plumbing • Refrigerator • Microwave

Ina of Sacramento CA (2/6/03):
We have had a home warranty policy with Old Republic for several years and it seems that their first response to a call for service is to send someone who will report a problem that is not covered by the warranty. The standard ploy is, "it was installed improperly." Or, "it's not up to code."

Recently, we called Old Republic because the heater was not blowing hot air out of the registers. They sent a technician who was paid the deductible of $45. After thinking about the situation for awhile, but without actually crawling into the crawl space to look at the ducts, this technician reported that animals had collapsed my ductwork, and that Old Republic did not cover damage by pests. And that the ductwork was inaccessible because the opening to the crawlspace was only 8" high. However, his company could replace my ductwork for about $1,100.00. I was skeptical about this since he admitted he had not actually observed any animal damage.

I did my own inspection, as best I could The ductwork seemed to be simply loose at the junction to the furnace. This technician did not crawl under the house to do any inspection, and told me he just guessed about the problem. So I called Old Republic, and spoke to Myesha who promised to get back to me about the situation. But she didn't. Then I spoke to Cynthia, and then to Debbie Kennedy who said she would send out a second opinion technician. I spoke with this technician by phone while he was at my house and he said that there are four inches of dirt near the junction of heating unit and duct, the coil needs to be cleaned, and it would take 8 hours to dig out the area around the duct.

I called Old Republic several more times and spoke to Kevin and Leah. At one point, Keven told me that yes, the inaccessible ductwork was covered up to $500. And he offered to "cash out" the problem for that amount. I said I would think about that and decided to take them up on it. But when I called back, I spoke to Latrell who informed me that a mistake had been made in offering me the $500 and that nothing would be covered by Old Republic. So, I ask myself, "Has this ever happened to anybody else?" "Am I the only person to get the run around?" "Is there any recourse for the consumer who pays a premium for a service, and quite often finds the contract is full of loopholes?" The policy states that $500 is the maximum payment to diagnose and repair ductwork. Yet, when I tried to collect -- no performance.

We've experienced three weeks of a cold house, an enormous amount of time wasted on the telephone, on hold, listening to annoying, deceptive company promises about their excellent service or talking to numerous customer service reps who gave conflicting answers. I've paid a premium for home warranty services that are too easy for the company to avoid performing, and I've paid the $45.00 deductible. And so far I've gotten nothing for my money. The biggest costs will be hiring a contractor myself to perform the work that I thought was covered by the policy.

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